t the
pride, the love, the generosity, of hearts at war with man, and not on
too good terms with heaven; but still it was their pride, their love,
their generosity, that occupied his imagination. They are bad men; he
takes care to tell us so himself; but he has not the heart to make them
act otherwise than as noble fellows while they are under his guidance.
The Corsair, from his very name and profession, is a declared criminal;
but this once said, the poet occupies himself and his reader with
nothing but what is generous and heroic in Conrad. Byron had no
disposition, had a certain antipathy, to paint the virtuous man; but it
was a virtue, nevertheless, that attracted his pencil. He felt it
necessary, as a preliminary condition, to remove his hero from the
category of good men; but this being fairly done, he resigned himself to
the natural bent for what is good and great. A Borgia, whether male or
female, in all its native deformity, was not the subject to allure him.

Nowhere is the rebuke of M. Girardin of certain of his contemporaries,
more dignified, or more justly merited, than where, discoursing on the
manner in which the moderns have delineated paternal love, he reproves
that exaggeration and falsification which has represented the father
describing the affection he bears to his daughter in a style of language
devoted to another species of love. Nothing can be more odious and
offensive than to transgress, even in language, the bounds between the
two affections, and to put into the mouth of a parent, as Victor Hugo
and Balzac have done, a style appropriate to the lover speaking of his
mistress. But we will not quote these passages from M. Girardin, because
they will require long quotations in order to justify the censure
contained in them. At the close of the lecture upon paternal love, we
find the following general remarks on the composition of a modern French
drama; and the slightest acquaintance with this drama will enable the
reader to appreciate their justice and analytic accuracy:--

Formerly a dramatic character was an assemblage of
qualities good and bad, which, on the one hand, were in
conflict amongst themselves, and, on the other, were
subjected to some superior law of religion, of honour, or of
patriotism. This twofold struggle constituted the interest
of the person brought upon the scene, and this superior law,
which he strove to accomplish, constituted the morality